Hamas asserts 'right to self-defence' after Israeli raids

MIDDLE EAST: Hamas, under mounting international pressure to renounce violence, asserted the Palestinians' "right to self-defence" Sunday after the first Israeli air raids since its shock election victory last month.

Three members of the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in a series of overnight air strikes on northern Gaza which Israel said were in response to a rocket attack Friday which injured four Israelis, including a baby.

The militants were killed when helicopters opened fire on a building in Gaza City, prompting the Fatah-linked group to utter threats of bloody revenge.

"Our martyrs are ready to hit the Zionist entity any time they want to," an Al Aqsa statement said. Around 2,000 people attended their funerals on Sunday, with hundreds of gunmen firing in the air to chants of: "Yes to resistance, no to the truce".

Meanwhile Two Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza Sunday, the second deadly attack in 24 hours.

Both of the men killed in the strike on two cars in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza were members of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, one of the militant groups which has stopped observing a truce with Israel, Palestinian security sources said. One was named as Adnan Bustan, 39, who was responsible for the manufacture of the makeshift rockets Jihad militants have repeatedly fired at Israel. The second was identified as Jihad al-Sawafiri, 31.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that a raid had been carried out targeting Islamic Jihad militants. Their deaths brought to 4,944 the overall toll since the September 2000 launch of the intifada, the majority of them Palestinian, according to an AFP tally. In further unrest, an elderly Israeli woman was killed and another five people injured after being stabbed by a knife-wielding Palestinian on a minibus near Tel Aviv.

Ismail Haniya, who was Hamas's top candidate in the January 25 election, condemned the air strikes and immediately cancelled a trip to Cairo, leaving fellow Hamas leader Mahmud al-Zahar to continue the trip alone.

"We condemn this crime, this assassination which only serves to increase the strength and unity of the Palestinian people," Haniya told AFP.

"People have the right to defend themselves in the face of these acts by the occupation."

The radical Islamist group, which has been behind the majority of anti-Israeli attacks, is under heavy international pressure to renounce violence before forming a new government.

Although it has held off attacks for over a year, its reluctance to turn from violence despite its embrace of democracy has seen both Washington and European Union threatening to slash funding to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA).

However, Israel on Sunday agreed to transfer to the PA tens of millions of dollars in customs duties which had been frozen after Hamas's election victory.

Housing Minister Zeev Boim said the transfer was approved at Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting, but vowed that no more funds would be transferred if Hamas formed the next Palestinian government a move which is widely expected to happen.. The unrest flared as Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was visiting Hamas's Gaza stronghold for talks with the Islamists about setting up a new government.

Middle East, Monday (AFP)